First stop: Sliding Rock! A natural water slide made of a gentle waterfall and big rocks. Oh, and coooold mountain water! It had been super hot in the area all week, but we got up there and it was fresh and cool, of course.... But I got in line anyway with Griffin while Steve opted out. The line moved fast and we learned shortly we'd gotten there in good time, as it got a lot more crowded later. For me though, one ride was enough! It WAS really awesome- you get going pretty fast- but the ice cold plunge pool at the end just about gave me a heart attack!
Here's our first run: (bugger- apparently I can't add video from my phone- but do check back after I have time to do it tonight. It's awesome!)
Griffin prevailed three more times before his lips were blue and he was utterly shivering.
Next stop: Looking Glass Falls, right along the road near Sliding Rock. Pretty crazy cool without even having to work for it via a hike or anything. Griffin wanted really bad to swim right down in the pool under the falls, but neither of us would go in swimming in that ice cold water so he just stayed near the edge.
For lunch we drove through the cute down of Brevard but opted for a casual place right at the entrance of the Forest, called The Hub. It is a bike shop that sells a bunch of beer (local NC micro brews of course), has a cool outdoor area with picnic tables, and a bunch of food trucks. This pretty much defines a lot of Asheville, by the way. It was just our speed. And make no mistake, we're talking super amazing food trucks and incredible beer.
Oh, and I'd be remiss, this week especially, if I didn't mention that next door to The Hub was the office for Charmichael Training Services. Ring a bell? No? Probably because you're not a Tour de France geek like me. Oh yes, Brevard and the whole area was one of Lance Armstrong's main training areas. Even the rafting guys noted on our steep, twisted, switchback drive down to the put-in spot that it was a road Lance regularly trained on. Chris Charmichael was his famous coach. Say what you will, but pump any drugs in me you'd like, or not, and I couldn't ride a mile on this terrain. Today on the Tour (which we streamed live through an app rigged to the car stereo, thank you technology and Doug Franks) a guy, who'd been dropped off the back of the peloton on the second climb, came back and finished in front in one of the hardest routes of the Tour this week- in full pouring hail no less. Clean, doping, who knows, but for me it's still great racing.
No comments:
Post a Comment